Comments on: O'Neill Cold Water Classic – Misty Cliffs

By: swatch

swatch — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:12:58 +0000

Hi Kim – thanks hey – S

By: kimiam

kimiam — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:04:30 +0000

These are beautiful.

By: swatch

swatch — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:27:36 +0000

Hey – books are great – for me ordering, waiting and receiving is always an exciting process. TNWTP is a great choice I also love the cover illustration, and there are paintings in the book I go back to over and over. There is a painting of an old guy on a fishing trip – ai! Baie mooi – (o: totsiens -

By: InkSplodge!

InkSplodge! — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:35:25 +0000

Cheers Swatch I appreciate your informative reply. Your ‘Insights on Learning’ is a powerful post and one that I’ve bookmarked for reading again. It also served to quiet my fervour for the arrival of Reid’s books as it dawned on me that I’ll need to engage my brain -gasp! Really interesting to see your progress where you prove that practise and focus pay off – abundantly clear in your final picture – I can almost hear the waves.

The nude on the cover of CR’s Book “The Natural Way to Paint” was the image that first caught my eye – fresh, few strokes with a limited colour range. Not knowing any different, I’ve instinctively mixed colours directly on paper instead of in a pallet but need to work on ‘less is better’. I agree with you and Carol that it’s a matter of adapting CR’s tutorials into one’s own painting style and there are many of his images that I don’t like.

Oh dear, now I’m getting excited again about the books. Totsiens ;-D

By: swatch

swatch — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:30:18 +0000

Hey Carol – good to hear from you. Yes you raise a healthy caution. I find it is easy to idealise these guys. When I write of CR I think of the paintings I really like. But I am not wild about all of his portraits and figures. mmm – worth consideration. I have a book of his flower painting technique in which he brings life to what can be quite a tired subject. Nice clean colours. And I always think of this when I think of colour use. Your paintings remind me of the work of Jean Dobie who wrote “making colour sing”. I adopted her suggested pallette.

I am afraid you may not find much new on my other site – I wanted to post there today but I am feeling a bit drained. So my day was a bit – ho-hum. But I managed a surf even thought he sea is still a bit rough and I did a little painting which I will put up later.

I read about all the rain you are having. Swell! – now there is a word I would like to use. I remember it from comic books from USA when I was a kid. Have a great weekend. I hope you get to lie in. You can also say “I am in a lekker dwaal hey” heh heh.

By: carolking

carolking — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:55:43 +0000

Dear “two blogs overachiever Stephen”, while I think Reid’s work is interesting, I do like the softness of yours. One needs to find the right spot in learning from a professional and finding how it works in your own work. That said, I did work from one of the Reid books and learned some, but my style (if I even have one) is quite different from his. Sometimes his splotchiness of colors works, sometimes I’m not crazy about it.
Have a lekker day. I’m in a bit of a dwaal today. It seems like it’s been raining here for 40 days and 40 nights. Makes me just want to sleep. Now I will go visit your other blog. Have a swell day Mr. Stephen “two blogs” Quirke!

By: swatch

swatch — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:45:23 +0000

Howzit Ink – yep thats the man – I love his approach and want to get it right in my own work. I have the tendency to fiddle instead of making bold, rich strokes. So this technique was quite difficult for me to take on. I wrote about it on the blog for my other world. Check it out here: http://conversaction.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/insights-on-learning/

It is great that you have ordered his books am sure you are going to enjoy his lessons. His paintings zing with light and colour.

Next time I paint here in my studio I will capture the phases. The guys on http://www.drawingboard.org/ have a tool in which they animate the phases and so you see the painting form on the screen which is neat – or, quite lekker (o:

By: InkSplodge!

InkSplodge! — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:35:36 +0000

Is that Charles Reid you’re talking about? After seeing some of his work on the internet I ordered 2 of his books and am trying (unsuccessfully)to control my eagerness for their arrival.

It’s so interesting to read of your techniques and a step-by-step of one of your paintings would be just lekker!

By: swatch

swatch — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:19:26 +0000

Hi Carol – thanks – I am pleased with these. The approach I take now, following what I read in Herr Reid’s books, is to start in one part of the painting and complete each section as I go along. I used to do a wash covering the whole page and then build on layers as I went. But on a cool, wet day this would not work. I usually only get one crack at each place. Reid says you should start with your darkest dark to create a sense of value scale, and then work the in-between shades. I like this because it sets the initial risk really high and then I have to let go of all my fiddly tendencies. I don’t always do this though, maybe cause I chicken out. K, who also comments here, has said I should use bolder colours and I have been trying to do this. Part of growing in this world of watercolour is to do lots of it. This I believe applies to anything. In order to learn from our experiences we need to reflect on what worked and what did not. Putting my paintings on this blog is fulfilling a lot of that process, because I get feedback from you guys. I also have to think about what worked and what did not. So I appreciate your inputs and questions. I remember your question about “lekker”. I find your interest in what is going on most enlivening, something I would like to emulate.

What I would like to do soon is to do a painting, step by step, taking photos as I go, to put on here. This would illustrate my approach, which my be instructive but also may draw some useful comments for me.

Thanks for your enthusiasm

Stephen

By: Carol King

Carol King — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:45:12 +0000

Another set of lovely watercolors. I really like these. And Yes, I am one of the people you had to explain lekker to. Do you wet all of your paper at once and then work on it? Or what? I need some tips. These are beautiful.